Robot Boy
by Sunajesh'sja
Summary: Set after Cheetah Racer. After the Wild Kratts return to the States, Zach bumps into Aviva and decides to have a little "chat" with her…


**Linkin Park FTW! Look at the lyrics, and you'll see. LOL, started to put "a viva" like it was a quantifiable noun. Not to mention all the times I've spelled it "Avia" and had to go back. Apparently, authoress unable to write complete English. Daheq?**

**Note: I'm aware of who supports what pairing, and do not need to be reminded, not on this story. If you can't critique *this* story without doing that, please don't review. (Other stories, fine, but that matter is irrelevant to this story in particular.) With that, enjoy (or don't, if you don't like it, you don't like it. XD). Oh, and I rate all my stories T for safety (except those that are clearly rated "M"). Rather rate it too high than not high enough, right?**

**Edit: Started trying to write the story, and the font was still bold. I thought I turned it off. FFFFFFUUUUUU- Also, I'm tired of the crap. No, literally, my grandma fell about two months ago and has been bedridden in diapers ever since, and I'm tired of the literal actual crap. It was tolerable at first, and maybe even fun (new experience, right?), but now… I know I'm a caretaker, and I'm one of those people that wants someone to give their love to (instead of someone who wants to be loved [do NOT misread that! You know what I mean! XD]), but I'm tired of the crap. The pee was fine, but when the crap started again… argh. Anyways… tried to type story again, font still bold. SHHHHHIIIII- (It worked the third time. I guess my keyboard is worn out. DX)**

After traveling so far away from home, it was nice to come back and relax for a while. Sure, it was fun to see new places and learn about strange creatures, but it was also fun to come back to familiar surroundings. She loved Chris and Martin, but it was like babysitting twin toddlers (something she knew all about). They were always getting into trouble, or losing/breaking things, or arguing, sometimes even whining about something. She loved spending time with them, both at and away from home, but she also loved NOT having to deal with all the trouble they could cause.

It was quiet in the park, and the perfect day to be there. It was nice to have calm after a rousing Kratt brothers adventure. It was nice to enjoy nature without nature being tormented/trying to kill some of her best friends. Even though there was a chill in the air, the sun was warm, and the birds that were left were singing. There was nothing she was going to let spoil this day for her, not even the shadow that fell over her as she thought it.

"Little Miss Smarty Pants." He mocked. She had that feeling. She only sighed.

"Go away, Zach. I get enough drama outside of the US."

"Relax, I'm not gonna do anything." Yeah, right. He took a seat next to her, leaning forward so that his elbows were resting on his knees with his hands dangling. There was something odd going on with him, the way he just stared at the ground.

"What's your problem?" She asked, almost afraid to find out. He only shrugged. Well, she wasn't going to worry about it. Whatever it was, he deserved it.

A few moments passed. AGH.

"Come on, what is it?" She asked, annoyed at herself for needing to know.

"I just start thinking about stuff." Okay. Fine.

No, not fine. Dang it!

"What kind of stuff?" He shrugged and propped his cheek in his hand. After a few more moments, he turned to her.

"Don't you ever feel like giving up?"

"On what?"

"Everything."

"What do you mean?" He sat up.

"Look at it. Every time a cop stops a robber, there's 10 more to take his place. Every time we build something, either nature or riots tear down 100 more. For every rich man, there's 1,000 poor men."

"What's your point?"

"It doesn't pay to be good. I tried it. It didn't work. I learned that a long time ago."

"Sure it does."

"When?"

"All the time!"

"No it doesn't!"

"At least when it comes to you 3 it does!"

"Pfft! You don't even know the half of it!" She was taken aback.

"What, you think Gourmand and Donita stay in business because of me alone? Pah! Twice, the only reason you caught Gourmand was because you managed to intercept his transmission. I don't know about any other time. I don't even have anything to DO with Donita's fashion line, except twice. Once, I promised her the Arctic pearl in exchange for a business deal, and the second time, I was security. Myself, I'm sitting on my own money. Those two? You think all that stuff just falls in their laps? Chris made Gourmand hit himself over the head with a frying pan hard enough to bend it; where do you think he got the replacement? Santa Claus?" He gave a frustrated scoff and turned back to the scenery in front of him.

"And you thought it important to tell me this why?" It wasn't the information itself, although that was frustrating.

"You're not doing as good a job as you think you are! None of you! No good guys are! We're the ones that are winning! A-a-and it's not even us!" He was getting WAY too excited, but it seemed… like it wasn't in a good way.

"It's not even us! Most of the time! Look, look, look, it takes so long for one creature, I don't care what, human, whatever, to be, to be… gestated, and born, but it takes one split second to kill! You can kill like, 100 creatures in the time it takes that one to be birthed alone! And then it takes so long for trees and crap to grow, and seconds for fire to burn it down or water to wash it away! It takes years to build things and seconds to tear them down or blow them up! It takes one minute amount of poison or germs or bacteria to hurt you, but so much longer to recover, assuming you live! It takes months and years to build a society, but no time at all for radicals to infect the minds of the youth and the mentally unstable and take it over! We're going backwards, Aviva! It's not worth it to try to beat them, and if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"

She was surprised. He'd never gone on like this before. There was something underneath that he wasn't saying.

"It's not worth the fight you put up. It's hopeless."

"It's not hopeless, Zach. Maybe all those bad things DO win the occasional battle, but the good things always win the overall war. That's why it's worth it."

"But there's so much going on that you didn't know about until I told you!"

"But then there's also a lot going on that YOU don't know about, or don't realize! I'm starting to think this isn't even about that! What does any of this have to do with me giving up on anything?"

"Because!"

"Oh, don't play that card, Zach! What is this really about? Cause it's not about me or you, that's for sure!"

"It's just easier to be on the winning side! Why fight so hard just to lose? What keeps you going; why don't you just give up?"

"Because I'm not the type that just gives up, that's why! Is that what you did?"

"Yes, eventually! Like I said, I tried being good and it didn't work."

"And why did you give up?"

"Because." He said, weakly.

"Because it was easier to give in than to fight." He turned back to the view. She could tell he was in a fragile emotional state.

"What made giving up easier?"

"The fact that I was alone, Aviva." So it WAS about him.

"They tell you to tell an adult, but they don't do anything. 'Boys will be boys', they say. 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger', they say." And it went way back.

"It's… a… LIE!" The last word was growled so forcefully, it seemed he should have lost his voice. There was a fire in his eyes now.

"No. Pain is not weakness leaving the body. You can't pull yourself up by the bootstraps when you're not even wearing boots. All of it's lies, or impossible, said by people that don't want to deal with the problem, or even admit there IS one. Lies that are told by the people who think you deserve it, because they're just like the people that are doing it to you, and you've never done anything wrong to them."

"Zach…"

"I stopped fighting because no one else would. It was easier just to go with them than against them."

"Okay. Fine, I can deal with that. But why now, after all these years? They're gone now, you're on your own now, it's over."

"It's never over. It's easier to destroy than to create."

"That may be, but that has nothing to do with you personally." He only turned away again. She took a moment to compose herself.

"Okay. Let's just get to the bottom of this. What do you want from me?"

"I don't know! I don't even know why I'm here! I have no idea why I'm talking to you! You don't understand, and you never will!"

"How do you know that?"

"You've always been the pretty one!"

"What?"

"Oh, please, boys fell at your feet like freakin' leaves!"

"Okay, that is NOT true! I was skinnier than you, had no body shape whatsoever, had braces on every single tooth, and had to keep my hair in buns because otherwise, it would get matted up like dog hair! The only solution was to cut it close to my scalp, but I would have looked like a boy! Every boy passed me up and every girl laughed at me!"

"Oh, boo hoo, you were rejected. Did they ever let their dogs chase you down the street? Did they ever push you into every single puddle possible after it rained? Did they ever steal your book bag, dump your crap on the ground and run in different directions with it?"

"Maybe not those exact scenarios, but yes, they did! I always found some kind of picture about how dorky I was taped to my locker! It was spread all around the school that I was in love with my cousin just because I wrote letters to him, even though he lived 2,000 miles away! They'd shove my books out of my hands, pull my stockings down which incidentally would pull my underwear down, and do you know how embarassing it is to have everyone see your bloody pad? I don't think so!"

"Yeah? Well look at what you turned into! I haven't changed at all! And you know what else they told me? Maybe if I was nice to them, they'd be nice to me. Yeah, I tried that. It got worse. There was only one thing left to do then."

"Oh, please, you're not that bad looking."

"Oh yeah? I've looked like this since I was FIVE. I've gotten taller, but that's pretty much it."

"Working with the robots has bulked you up. SOME."

He only sneered at her as they both turned away. They then realized what they just said to each other. They spoke at the same time.

"Did you call me 'pretty' a moment ago?" She asked.

"Did you just say what I think you said?" He asked. They both jumped up, again speaking in tandem.

"Look at the time!" She said.

"Gotta go!" He said, as they bolted in opposite directions.

**LOL. I just realized I picked up Quentin's habit of saying "Eh…" all the time. FFFFFFFUUUUUU- Oh well, my memes are rubbing off on him. XD REVENGE! Also, this fic is freaking random. Man, I gotta post some Wordgirl stuff. I keep forgetting.**


End file.
